Nancy Drew Case Files #36: Over the Edge (1989)

 

Nancy, Bess, and George are once again heading off on vacation. This time, it's Club High Adventure, some random ranch type place where they have a bunch of random activities. Marva, the woman who owns the place, asked Nancy for help when she began getting a series of suspicious letters and things start going wrong.

Literally the day they get there, they witness a hang-gliding accident. Lisa, the guest, comes down hard and smacks her head on the ground. Gil, her instructor, checks her out and claims that she's fine but still calls for an ambulance, though he does take a few minutes to flirt with her. Nancy finds that especially weird when she discovers that he's engaged to Marva.

Gil reveals that the hang-glider had a bent rod that looks like someone did it deliberately. Nancy starts her usual investigating and runs into “Uncle Al” who works for the club. He is super gruff like a Scooby Doo villain and tells her to basically mind her own business. She also overhears Gil and Marva fighting. As it turns out, he wants her to sell the club and she has no interest in selling.

Thinking that Lisa was possibly behind her own “accident,” Nancy sneaks into her room and looks around. She learns that Lisa has a hot boyfriend who her parents hate and that they sent her there to get her away from him. Lisa wrote the guy a letter where she claimed that she found a way to get back at her parents so they could be together soon. There's also a photo that shows the two getting arrested at a protest. This – for some reason – makes Lisa Nancy's number one suspect.

Nancy then runs into Sara, one of Lisa's roommates. She wears as little as possible and demands to be the center of attention. Sara also has the hots for Gil who doesn't seem to mind. Their other roommate is totally not memorable so I'll just call her K. She also has an accident and gets a threatening letter but just laughs it off like nothing happened.

Cut to Roger Coleman entering the picture. Roger is a super rich guy who wants to buy the club. Gil knew he was coming and thought it would make Marva sell. Marva is less than pleased at his arrival, which causes the two to fight again. Nancy overhears him threatening her and basically saying that he'd rather she die then not sell the club. Marva blows it off like he's a great guy with a slight temper.

The oddest thing is that someone breaks into her office. Nothing is missing except for a photo of her dad when he ran the club and some guests. Marva conveniently can't remember who else was in the photo. She claims that she was a kid and that it was just other adults.

Seeing Uncle Al acting all gruff again has Nancy wondering about him and eventually deciding to sneak into his cabin. The only thing that happens is that he almost catches her, but she gets away at the last second and steals one of the glasses from his kitchen. Nancy also finds the remains of the missing photo burned in his fireplace. She then announces that she wants to take it to the biggest city the next day and have the police check for prints.

The cops somehow know all about Nancy and agree to run the prints. She then meets Bess and George at the library and research the club. They find out that when Marva was seven, a guest pushed another guest off the cliff to his death. He was only caught because Marva saw it happen and told the police. Guess what? It was totally Uncle Al! After serving years in prison, he came back under a different name to get back at a freaking child for sending him to prison for murdering a man. The cops then reveal that the prints on the glass match the convict.

So everyone hops in the car and rushes back to the club, but they run into heavy fog that delays them. By the time they get there, Marva is off on a hike conveniently to the same one where Al murdered a dude and he's the leader. Nancy tells Gil everything and then asks him to wait for the police to get there. I guess a teenage girl and her friends can drive faster than the cops?

They get to the cliff just in time to see Al pushing Marva. Nancy throws herself in front of him, but he pushes Marva anyway in front of a large group of witnesses. They wind up on a tiny ledge where he keeps trying to push her over. Gil then shows up on his hang-glider to save the day, but Al shoots him. Two random teenagers who were in the hiking group grab his glider and pull him down.

Nancy steals the glider because she's obviously a natural and uses it to fly down to the ledge. When she gets close, she karate chops Al in the head and knocks him out before jumping onto the ledge and letting the glider crash. The cops show up to arrest him as he claims that he'll be back and his plan would have worked if it weren't for those darn meddling kids. Gil apologizes for being an ass and promises not to make her sell, and Marva invites them to stay for another week as their guests.

*I just watched the Supernatural/Scooby Doo crossover, so I couldn't stop thinking about it when reading this book!

*At one point, Nancy gets locked in the onsite restaurant's freezer. She tries to break down the door with a frozen leg of lamb and then uses it to break the thermostat. There's something about how the door will automatically open if the thermostat breaks? I have no idea because I worked in restaurants and never heard that before?

*Despite multiple comments about her weight, Bess has a sausage and egg biscuit for breakfast. That's my girl!

*Sara comes out wearing a purple string bikini with a matching flimsy robe over it to hang around the resort. She's also described as being Nancy's age, so I fight that incredibly creepy.

*Gil is an ass. He literally shouts at Marva multiple times and threatens to kill her if she won't sell the club. Plus, he flirts with everything that moves and isn't secretive about it...at all. Their research at the library reveals that he was once a big shot real estate guy who gave it all up to teach hang-gliding after he met her. It makes Nancy think that he wants Marva to sell so he can have access to her money and get back into real estate. No worries though, because one apology is all it takes for her to forgive him and start planning their wedding again.